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in reply to: Dangers of Bikram dialogue? #7943
Hi Romy and Freia
Yes, I do get what you’re saying Freia about the way people shouldn’t compare themselves to others. It does get easier to focus on oneself over time.
Romy, I also love this yoga and I don’t believe you are being disrespectful. Where’s the disrespect in questioning something? Especially when the thing you are questioning is not serving you in the best way possible.
Here’s something to consider: Why are so many people looking around in the first place? If the dialog were doing what it was supposed to do then I wouldn’t have this forum. Everything would be crystal clear and the words would guide everyone into the poses safely and there wouldn’t be nearly as many problems or injuries as there obviously are.
AND … people wouldn’t need to look around as much as they do. Romy, I believe that students like you started their practice always having to look around because the instructions aren’t quite enough for you to follow by listening to the instructions and only watching yourself.
Sure, seeing others doing the poses can help but it shouldn’t be the primary source of information gathering. Unfortunately this is the way most newbies learn – particularly when the verbatim script is continually and repeatedly delivered.
Yoga is not a gladiatorial endeavor. There are deeper issues involved that are not just dialog issues, or mirror issues. They could have something to do with the hot yoga culture. There definitely is an element ingrained about pushing through barriers that could be communicated better (to go beyond making it mainly about the physical).
These poses are NOT supposed to be painful and they’re not supposed to make you struggle. The struggle comes from the normal stuff like your ability to breathe or put up with (healthy levels of) heat … and the list goes on, but you get the picture.
At the moment you’ve been having terrible problems due to technique and a misinterpretation of the poses. That misinterpretation could be your teacher delivering the instructions or you trying to make sense of them in your body, or a combination! But if you’re not ‘getting’ it then your teachers should see that you have a problem and correct their instruction so that YOU do get it.
I have my own opinion about verbatim script teaching. I don’t agree with it. This is what makes my Hot Yoga MasterClass Manual so popular (and used by MANY Bikram Yoga Trained Teachers and Affiliated Studios around the world – and that’s the truth!).
Can you talk to your studio about it? Well, maybe. But if they have a group of teachers that all teach the same class then chances are you will not make a change there. There are plenty of teachers and studios out there who strongly defend the word-for-word script and there are plenty out there who move beyond it to give what I believe (IMHO) is a better, more connected, safe and inspiring class. Even if you do choose to continue at that studio, YOU CAN do something about improving your practice. You can start here, (use the forum, use the HYMC manual).
I note from your other post that you actually are now and feeling a better non-painful response from your body. Yippeeeee! 😉 Thanks for letting me know that my recommendations worked.
I look forward to responding to your other post in depth after a reread, and hearing of your progress
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: help with creating heat #7940Thanks Lisa
I remember that brand from other posts. So Laurel, pop the word Bionaire into the search box and read the posts associated with that.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Checking in #7937Hi Allison
2-3 times per week is a great number of classes. More would be wonderful but just doing what you can is all you can do. Just enjoy it!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Colds and hot yoga #7936Hi Allison
If you’re infective or you have to stop and blow your nose every few minutes then these are good reasons to stay away. Don’t go if you have a temperature. It really is not nice to go into the room where others have a cold thinking they’ll sweat it out in the company of others. If you think that will help you then a steamy bathroom or a room with a vaporiser with or without medicative oils is the answer!
On the subject of blowing your nose. The perception of others counts here. You may no longer have a cold but if you have to blow your nose all the time this can be very off-putting to your neighbors. It’s also very unappealing to be practising next to someone who has a growing pile of mooshy gooshy tissues.
In a warm and humid environment where there are lots of people all together, it pays to consider others possibly even more than you would in ‘regular’ environments. Anyway, that’s my 2c worth.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂PS there are actually quite a number of questions like this elsewhere in the forum with comments from many yogis! Take a look…
in reply to: injury to lower back – help #7935Hi Romy
Thanks for the update on your other post. If your problem is being exacerbated by less than optimal technique then the rest will help but then when you go back to yoga it’s possible that you’ll create the same problems again.
In Half Moon: When you say you feel weird, what further distinctions can you offer? Would that be a feeling on one side of your spine only? Is it close into the spine or nearer the hip? If it’s sore on one side of your spine for the first side of the pose, does it reverse for the second side? More info please.
In Backbend: sometimes the anticipation of pain or discomfort can cause you to be overly cautious. That’s one thing to consider. However if it’s related to your issue then for a while, until we work this out, set up, drop your head, keep your legs strong and just take your arms back a little. In effect just do a tiny backbend.
In Standing Bow: Is this tightness one sided on the back (same sort of questions as for Half Moon).
I would like you to go and check out the video Opening Up Your Hamstrings With Hot Yoga. Come back and tell me whether you think you’ve been rounding your back in an effort to have your legs straight. And if you have, try the technique I suggest.
Your new information about the nervous issue (electric shocks or lancinating pain) certainly should worry you and definitely means to me that you can modify your approach to help you.
Try the above and come back. See whether it feels better in your body. If you’ve got hypermobile joints then it can be hard to build strength and go against your natural inclination to take the poses as far as you probably already do.
Be careful and mindful and enjoy your practice while you’re at it. Don’t be concerned about depth and please stop if something’s not right. Reassess, report to me and then we’ll find a way.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: help with creating heat #7934Hi Laurel
I can’t put my hands on it right now but I am sure there are posts on the forum that have names of humidifiers that would be good for your room. It will help you save money on heating because you won’t need to heat as high.
I do recall that a few months ago I found some very good humidifiers at Amazon. I will try to find that email or post (???) but they had large water receptacles and outlets. Go see if you can find something there. Please let us know what you found.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂PS Just found an email with something useful: Honeywell QuietCare Cool-Moisture Humidifier, 3 Gallon AND Lasko 1115 3-Gallon Evaporative Recirculating Humidifier, BOTH for about $50 each. That would be a great place to start because Amazon do recommend similar products.
in reply to: The Beginnings of Heat Stroke? #7922Hi Charlotte
It does sound – at least on the surface – as an electrolyte issue! Thanks Bonnie for the questions.
Coconut water is being touted as the be all and end all in electrolyte replacement. Is this really true? I have just spoken to someone doing hot yoga 1-2 times a day taking FRESH coconut water after every class. Not the heat treated stuff in a tetra pack. Now that’s GOT to be better wouldn’t you agree?
Well she’s had terrible issues with shakes, and tingling feelings. Sound familiar?
Go and get some good quality sea salt and consider taking about 1/2 tsp per day anyway you like. Buy some electrolyte tabs if you really want to. Gatorade is an expensive way to get sugar, Na and Cl and K and almost nothing else (haven’t checked lately so correct me if I’m wrong).
David (above) mentions this:
The ones I buy from CVS cost about $7 for a huge bottle of tablets and this is a treatment used by runners and other athletes for heat prostration. One tablet can make a huge difference.
See what happens but DEFINITELY keep a close eye on what’s happening.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Lily
If that’s the case, I really suggest waiting til you have a few periods before you decide on the effects of hot yoga. This could be a one off issue. One period experience is just too small a sample to go by.
Periods vary in their intensity and duration. I don’t know how old you are but that could be a factor. Or it could be that you just had a longer heavier period this time.
Wait til next time. Who knows what effects a regular and frequent practice will have on your body even in a month or so.
Some women’s first day is the heaviest and others it’s the second… Whatever day you think that is, IF you want to skip class, or if you want to skip certain poses because they don’t feel right, just listen to your intuition and … um … ‘go with the flow’. Now that’s got to be one of the worst period puns ever. :zip:
Come back and let us know what happens
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: cramped solar plexus, still cramped after hours #7907Hi Susana
It’s been 3 days since your post. Has that sensation left you yet? Is it something that could be ‘worked out’ with a good dose of Supta (or some other SP opening pose)? I am trying to determine what happened for you. Is there anything else you can tell me?
I get the feeling you’re not a newbie. Is that right? What feeling or indication have you got that your alignment is good in this pose? I am thinking about perhaps your torso may have been twisted due to your hips maybe not square. Perhaps a one off situation to do with the compression and breath combination… I am throwing ideas around here and need your input.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Herniated Disc #7906Thank you Rebecca
That was a wonderfully informative post. I hope it’s helpful from a practical standpoint from which others will benefit. Your personal account and your tips are highly appreciated.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi PJ
I would probably loosen the grip a bit and aim for the lengthening of the spine! You should notice over time how you can grab a bit closer towards your elbows.
Perhaps once every 3 classes for 1 set out of the 2, do the tight grip if you feel that is a satisfying pose for you. Use the lose grip on the first set and tight on the second.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Blood sugar levels #7904Hi Tiffany
Amy is right, please talk that over with your specialist. In the meantime I wonder if you have tried practice with different conditions. What for example happens if you do the series at 80 degrees F or 30C perhaps? What would happen if you just did a 60 minute class with one set only in full heat? Or a double set class but with selected poses for only 60 mins?
There has got to be an answer for you where you can find a level of intensity or ambient conditions that keep you safe.
It may take some looking into. What do you think? We can get all caught up in the 90 min class being the only way… Worth an investigation?
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Blood sugar levels #7898Ah Tiffany
In my tired stupor I just missed that not so fine detail! That makes a difference! And now that’s it almost 11pm here I shall aim to tackle your issue tomorrow!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: LOVE HOT YOGA, BUT……. #7895Hi Jamie
I love you guys!!! It’s so heartwarming to see such support for people right here! Bunni thanks for your input (and compliment). 😉
Jamie I wonder if you might be open to some ideas. At our store we sell a great movie that changed our lives. And if you don’t want to get it from there, you could borrow it, buy elsewhere. There’s also a video of it here: movie trailer.
It certainly got me started on my real push into raw food. There are plenty of raw food online resources. I eat between 75-95% raw food, the rest of the family a bit less. But we always try to eat minimum 60% raw food. When you do your research you can find evidence of plenty of people who have lost tons of weight on raw and mostly raw diets.
Someone on this forum pointed me to a great forum and info website called Raw Food Rehab. You will find that it is supportive and informative and Penni is a delight to watch in her unscripted and entertaining (and motivating) videos.
Anyway, go and check it out. It will put a smile on your face and sometimes that’s all we need.
OK, so now you have homework! Give me your thoughts
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Blood sugar levels #7892Hi Tiffany
Thanks for your input bunni!
Just as an aside I wanted to ask you something:
I was just wondering whether you had ever seen the video called SIMPLY RAW: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days. Borrow it from your library or get it from Amazon and check it out. I do know there are snippets and trailers on YouTube.
If you haven’t come across it before it may be a useful perspective.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: goals for the long-torso-ed? #7890Hi Alex
Just goes to show that we really are not all the same! 😀
I would try Happy Baby or Dead Bug pose! You’ll see images with hands on the outside and inside of feet, over toes, from the side… Try them all and see how you can get your shoulders and hips on the ground plus using your activated biceps!
Have fun! Doesn’t look very attractive!
Just a thought, what happens when you sit up and hug your knees?
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Awkard pose for the upper body?? #7888Hi Liliana
Sometimes it just takes a little shift to make the difference. It could be that in some of your poses that you have your arms straight but not activated.
For this reason, Awkward should actually be a strong pose for toning the arms. Next time you’re practising see if you have your arms straight or straight and activated.
It is my experience that while you’re switching your focus to your legs in Awkward, often the arms will slacken off. So see if you can just more often bring your attention back to your arms.
Beware not to hunch shoulders in an effort to activate the arms. That is a trap that too many fall into.
Thanks Todd for your input
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Night Sweats #7886Hi Todd
Yes! Bananas are great.
That’s excellent news about your last yoga experience.
If I may be so bold as to suggest that the only 2 things I can think of that table salt are good for are making play dough for children and soaking clothes in water with high concentration table salt to stop dye runs.
The way that table salt is processed robs every iota of nutritional goodness and on top of that the high heat treatment of it is said to alter the ionic structure (I have not researched that YET)… but what that means is that I recommend immediate rather than eventual removal of that stuff from your kitchen. I always have a bag of it at home … in the laundry.
The advantages: You don’t have to be cautious about the amount of salt you put on your food. You can go back to enjoying salt added whenever you like. You can’t control what others put in to your processed foods (if you eat them) but you can feel happy to do the best you can at home. It’s a simple and cheap way to get your electrolytes.
At our home aim for between half and one teaspoon a day. It’s in and on salads and dressings and so on.
The modern day studies about sodium effects are most certainly because of our propensity to eat food with NaCl salt rather than sea salt. Excess Na (sodium) is implicated in many modern day diseases but what’s not addressed is the imbalance in all the necessary nutrients and electrolytes sadly missing from diets. Well, that’s my opinion, because the last few decades have seen an inordinate amount of food processing.
I welcome comments from anyone to open up this discussion! I’m off to enjoy the weekend now, so I won’t keep writing although I know I could!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Heidi
So, when you look at page 217, those 2 pics of me down the bottom left, do you look like one of those photos?
I would like you to focus on rolling your shoulders out and blades down and back and aiming for inside of upper arms in contact with the floor instead of thinking about your forearms coming toward the midline. Let the arms go where they are comfortable, with the aim of pushing your chest and heart into the floor. Don’t be hell bent of getting your arms together (just now anyway).
Try that and report back 😉
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Heidi
Can you tell me what your shoulders are doing? Can you explain if they are lifted because of large breasts? If you have tight chest muscles then often the shoulders move toward the midline and either arms or arms and shoulders contact the floor. Maybe when you do that your body has to lift in order make room for your arms.
I hope you don’t mind but I am really trying to picture what your situation is. Let’s go down this path a little further. If I can’t ‘get’ it then we can consider you getting me a pic!
It’s not entirely necessary (or it’s not top priority) to have arms straight. It’s MORE important to try to get shoulders, arms, wrists and hands contacting the floor AND chest too (area between shoulders). Does that give you any further ideas as to how to explain what’s going on for you?
As an aside: Wondering your orthopedic massage person says you have odd arms, or if it’s just you! 😉
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Night Sweats #7878Hi Todd
Just wondering if there is a direct correlation between practising yoga and the sweaty episodes.
The other thing I wonder about is your intake of electrolytes. Are you supplementing? Do you use normal table salt or sea salt?
I will investigate that link later but thought I would ask the questions first.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: hypermobile joints? #7867Hi Cate
Ellyn is right! You may not want to listen to the blanket veto of your doc, but you may want to listen to the message that lies beneath.
And that is in order to support your ‘yoga habit’ you need to support your flexible or hyper mobile joints and do some strength training.
You can achieve this in this static set of poses by deliberately NOT going deep but by working strongly on alignment and the strength aspects of the pose. This may not be immediately obvious to you in a particular pose, but that’s certainly something I can help you with at the forum or in the Hot Yoga MasterClass manual which would detail exactly what to work and how.
For example slight adjustments in Half Moon (that are not immediately obvious) can transform this pose for you from being about how far you arc to the side to a powerful pose. It would be about you balancing what you do with hips, arms and torso and where you place your weight. The tiny details may be your savior here.
It seems you may even benefit from some strength sessions at a gym. Have you ever done that?
I am not sure if a gentler form of yoga would do it for you. It really has to work well with the techniques you use. For example you may find that Power Yoga is a great style for you because of the focus on strength building.
Let us know what you decide to do
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Burning sensation on the skin at the elbow. #7866Hi Jeffrey
My thoughts exactly! The modifications I gave you will help you with a lateral meniscus tear and particularly help you with the inflammation. I guess you’ll now and get someone to look at it…
Keep us posted
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂 -
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